Closer

They are still working on the closets and hopefully will finish with them tomorrow. At least the closet doors are on Max's closet. I made a major error when the carpet was being installed - I forgot to make sure they left an opening for the crawl space. Then to make matters worse we put up the shelves in Max's closet on top of the crawl space. Not really a big deal, but had to move everything in the closet and call the carpet guys back out. The stove was suppose to be installed today and that installation was canceled. Check out the picture of our imaginary stove. It will now be happening on Saturday afternoon. I am just so ready to not have people in my house and scheduled appointments. We have a puddle problem (which I am glad we had all the rain to so painfully point it out) that they have to address along with a gutter and down spout problem. It is all wonderful, but I am ready to be finished. We still have to get the back brick step put down. All should be right in a week or so (we still have to lay the floor in the sewing room. Cleaning the house is turning into a nightmare, but we are slowing getting there.

Later . . .

Finally

Wow - I was beginning to think it was never going to happen. The carpet looks great and they did an excellent job of installation. Debby came by after work on Friday and helped move the furniture back into our NEW bedroom. The room is huge and now our furniture does not look so large. We have the room to actually use the armoire to put the TV in and it just gives the room a much cleaner look. We bought some shelving for our closets. Max's closet is done and waiting for the doors. We had to give much more thought to my closet and I think we have it figured out and need to buy a few more pieces of closetmaid.

The flooring for my sewing room requires 48 hours in the house to acclimate - so we plan to try to put it down on Tuesday. The stove is coming on Wednesday. Once they get the closet doors on and the step outside the slider, we will be close to being completely done. I am very anxious to get the sewing room finished and see how it will look!

Later . . .

Nearing the finish line

Amazingly we are coming to a close with the addition. The carpet will be installed tomorrow morning! The addition is incredible and they did a wonderful job. I was pushing the contractor to be finished today so we had the painter, the roofer and the plumber here doing finishing. Roofer attached the down spouts, plumber connected the water faucet at the back of the house and painter guy is doing all the touch up and finishing work. All the doors are hung with the exception of the sliding closet doors (they need to wait until the carpet is installed). All the light fixtures are up and I am so excited to see what it is going to look like was the carpet is down and it is all tied together. It should not take too long to install the flooring in my new sewing room, which I totally love. The window in the sewing room is really great! It is completely mirrored so you cannot see in but I have great light and view of the back yard. Am I happy – OH YEAH!

They still have a lot of clean up to do and build our back step (we want it to be brick to match the other steps). The stove will be installed on Wednesday and then we can have our final inspection and final walk through. Even though I am going to have to clean the WHOLE house from top to bottom, the addition is completely worth it. It really does look awesome and blends with the house as if it had been built that way.

Later . . .

Weekend

We headed down to the desert for another weekend - this time to celebrate Desirae’s birthday. Mainly her presents consisted of clothes except for some puzzles and blocks. She was very happy with the clothes and did a "Fashion Show" for everyone. Deanna seemed to truly enjoy the birthday cake (which was most excellent and homemade by Denise). We had a good time and had a sleep over with the kids in the trailer. These drive down late on Friday and come home on Sunday weekends are tough, but worth it for the grandkids. We have made a deal with Devin and Desirae that next year we will combine their birthdays and celebrate Devin’s late and Desirae’s early and do it the weekend in between.

We are getting so close to being finished with the addition. The projected finish is now this coming Thursday. We are trying to schedule the carpet to be laid on Friday and the stove to be installed on Saturday or Monday. I can’t actually schedule the stove until the carpet is scheduled and they will not give me an answer until Wednesday. I suppose it is not that big of a deal, but we need the carpet down to be able to move the furniture back in.

Later . . .

Just for interest

Check this out - talk about a tree full of birds! Don't know where they all came from and don't know where they all went, but it was fun while it lasted.

Another Week Gone

Another week has passed and I have not posted anything. We went down for Devin’s birthday and neither of us remembered to bring a camera so the birthday pictures can be seen on Duane’s blog. It was a very fast, but low keyed weekend. We have no extra time due to need to be at the house while the workers are here to keep Darci from going ballistic when someone gets too close to “HER” fence or comes in “HER” house.

The progression is moving along much slower now that it involves detailed things and stuff that needs to dry. There was a lag due to the mud on the sheet rock would not dry because it has been so damp and cold. The texturing is done and the painter is making good progress. He has completed the primer both inside and out, painted the outside and is staring on the inside today. It is very close to being finished. We hope to be able to put the flooring in my new sewing room on Monday.

Most of the real dirty work is completed and I have been able to slowly start dusting and cleaning, but it is going to take some time to get things back to normal.

Later…

Robins

The most amazing thing happened on Monday. While I was standing at the kitchen window getting my coffee, I noticed a beautiful robin sitting on the fence. I bent down to get a better look and noticed MANY robins in the neighbor’s tree. At one time I counted 18 robins sitting in that bare tree. Some were more yellow, some orange and some really nice red. I stood drinking my coffee watching them and all the sudden they all flyew away at once and in their place was a big sparrow hawk! I could not get a picture of the hawk, but I did manage a picture of the robins.

Later . . .

More Progress

The roofer completed his job by putting up the gutters. The stucco guys did their second coat. The tape is on and the mudding will start tomorrow. I talked to the contractor this morning and he thinks they will be completely finished with the inside by a week from this Thursday. The outside painting may get stalled because of the predicted rain. Can you believe it? Wow!

Later . . .

Time is flying . . .

I cannot believe the difference one week can make. I did not have access to my computer for a couple of days while they were working on the wiring – did not want to fry anything (they worked on some hot wires, but I just didn’t want to take the chance). The last time I posted the stucco guys were here and put up some paper and wire. OMG since then we have all the electrical completed including they wired my cook top! I mentioned it as a side job and they just did it. We have the speaker wires in place and the cable and phone. The concrete is poured for the hot tub and around the new addition. They did an excellent job and when we do the extras that we want to do it is really going to look nice. The plumber ran the gas for the fireplace and everyone pitched in and moved the hot tub back on the pad. The new window was put in (although it was framed wrong and they had to fix that). The roof is on and the gutters will be on Monday. We have our first coat for the stucco and the sheet rock is hung! Now it is closed in and it really has taken shape.

We were headed to Home Depot to go ahead and buy our carpet when I decided we should stop by Lowes to compare prices AND we found the SAME carpet that we have in our house now. That is going to make things so much easier because we will just have them put the new carpet in the addition and the hallway. I am VERY happy about that.

On a positive note it would appear that Kodi is a bit more relaxed and kicked back as is depicted in the picture. Wish I could say the same for my stress level, but it will be over soon and oh so worth it!

Later . . .

Working on a Sunday

The stucco guys showed up this AM and wanted to paper and wire the house for stucco. Go figure they would want to work on Sunday, but what the heck it gets us closer to the end goal. The stove guy was suppose to come and cut the hole for the stove pipe, but that was cancelled until tomorrow afternoon. I can't remember if I mentioned we found someone to repair the hall carpet, so we are going to go ahead and order our carpet and pick up the flooring probably tomorrow. The roofer mentioned he is going to have a hard time matching the gutters, so I will do some shopping tomorrow to get some estimates for just replacing them for the entire house.

Max took me out to dinner to San Leandro's Horatios (one of my favorite places to eat). We had a wonderful meal and MUCH THANKS goes out to Jessie and Adrienne who paid for it! They make the best key lime pie - yum! We then stopped at Best Buy on the way home and picked up a DVD recorder with VCR. I have been wanting one of those for a long time and this will allow us to get rid of three components hooked up to the receiver. We also shopped for receivers and speakers. They had a really nice one on sale for $900, but we are going to do a bit of shopping. I want a receiver in my sewing room to go with the surround sound speakers that are already there and we need speakers for the new addition.

Kodi finally found a spot where he can get his back up against something and be comfortable - there may he hope for his peace of mind and sanity during this construction.

Later . . .

Michael's Raise

Last night Michael took the family out to dinner at the Olive Garden to celebrate having worked for WalMart for one year and he got his first raise in pay. He also now gets vacation and sick leave and he was VERY excited about that. Micahel, Paul, Kathy, Debby, Max and I all went to dinner and then went to Loard's for dessert (hot fudege sundaes except for Michael who only eats vanilla ice cream).

Debby went home because she had to work the next day, but the others came back to our house to check out the progress of the addition. Pictures don't really tell the picture and I wish everyone could see the progression in person. They have all the framing done, including Max's closet. The only thing left is to take out the old door that opened into our old bedroom. These are pictures of the hallway and the doorway into the addition and Max's closet. The roofer came out yesterday and layed paper on the roof because there was a chance of rain. They moved everything inside (tools and insulation) and got everything pretty water tight (it did rain last night). The stucco guy showed up today and dropped off material as they will start that process on Monday. The electricians will probably finish with the electric on Monday and then they can actually insulate and sheet rock. The whole process is really going quickly. I am actually getting very excited about the final results!

Later . . .

OMG it is becoming real . . .

OMG! Our addition is actually beginning to look like what it is suppose to look like. I am amazed at the difference when the walls are up. The sliding glass door is in the addition and the frame is in for the window in what will be my sewing room. It is sooooooo cool to see what the actual hallway will look like.









We have to do some measuring to decide where we want our bedroom furniture to go. The contractor will put the wiring for the surround sound in the wall and wants to bring it out where the receiver will be; which is what we have to decide. He measured the bed and nightstands and is putting the outlets behind the nightstands along with the phone outlet. Because of the headboard and footboard for our king size bed, we are a little pressed for room to walk, but it is much better than the previous room. We have some clear lines now, but I just am not sure how to arrange the dressers and the armoire. We have some limitations due to the free standing stove, but I am sure we will figure it out.

We are making some changes as we go and I had to spend over an hour with the contractor and the electrician today figuring out where to put lights and light switches. He kept trying to talk me into some strange-ass things, but I held my ground and explained I am a simple girl – keep it simple and keep with the flow of the house. I want the addition to blend with the rest of the house and I not only do not need, but do not want to spend the money for elaborate crap!

Whew – what an adventure this is turning out to be!

Later . . .

Progression

The addition seems to be progressing quite well. Unfortunately the workers were on a roll with the framing, but lumber that was suppose to be delivered this AM did not arrive until the afternoon. Since they cannot stand around and do nothing, they started on the master bedroom removing whatever they could get their hands on. The sliding glass door is ready to be removed and the doors and hardware are removed from both the closets. The carpet has been rolled up (we need to save a portion). The plan is for the inspector to do a PM inspection and have the roofers roof on Thursday.

I think I have picked out the flooring for my sewing room. It is a really pretty laminate by Dupont. It has the backing attached and the color and pattern should not show scratches or dirt. We have come across a little problem with the carpet. We cannot match the carpet that we have in the house. With the extension of the hallway, we really need to have the carpet match. We can get new and different carpet for the extension, but the installers will not install the old carpet from the master bedroom into the hallway. No problem with getting new carpet for the addition, but we have to find someone who will cut a piece from the master bedroom carpet and install it. We do not know how to install carpet, so I will be searching for a “repair” service to see if they will lay the carpet in the hallway. I am sure it will all work out in the end – the closer we come to completion the more timing becomes essential.

Later . . .

SF Trips with Jessie & Adrienne

It is pretty obvious that we had a good time on both visits. The trip to Ghirardelli was a taste treat sensation for everyone (Jessie wanted to just jump in the vat of chocolate, but restrained herself). Adrienne and I enjoyed the sundaes as is clear in the picture. The weather for Jessie was one of the coldest day EVER, but we bundled up and had a good time. We stayed over in the city with Jessie, but came back the same night with Adrienne. For all you Ireland fans out there, I will make a disk of all the shots and send them your way in the next week or so.

Later . . .

Picked out stove for addition

I went to the House of Fire today and ordered the free standing stove for the addition. The one I ordered is a Kozy Heat Duluth http://kozyheat.com/duluth_image.html in black cast iron and will come with a blower and remote. We still have to pick out the hearth pad, but I am going to make Max go with me for that one.
The addition is moving along rapidly. They are putting up all the needed structure for the roof and the roofers are suppose to roof on Thursday. How cool - check out my closet! They will be breaking through the wall on either Wednesday or Thursday. Max removed all the "popcorn" from the master bedroom and just has the hallway to finish. It actually went quite quickly - it is just a mess to deal with.